The United States expanded its response this week to countries hit hard by Hurricane Melissa, adding new disaster assistance and deploying senior officials and relief teams across the region.
Jeremy Lewin, the State Department’s senior official for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, traveled to Jamaica to meet with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, members of the State Department’s Disaster Assistance Response Team and urban search and rescue teams from Fairfax County and Los Angeles County.
The State Department announced nearly twelve point six million dollars in new aid on November ten. The additional funding brings total US assistance for Hurricane Melissa recovery to nearly thirty seven million dollars.
A Disaster Assistance Response Team began work in The Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica after deploying on October twenty nine. Urban search and rescue teams from Fairfax County and Los Angeles County are supporting operations in Jamaica, including search efforts and debris removal.
US Southern Command’s Joint Task Force Bravo has delivered five hundred thirty thousand pounds of relief supplies to communities in western Jamaica. These deliveries include food, safe drinking water and shelter materials. The State Department also sent twelve thousand tarps, twelve thousand shelter kits and hygiene items for twelve thousand families from its warehouse in Miami.
In Haiti, the United States supported the delivery of nearly three thousand sheets of plastic and shelter kits prepositioned in the country. The International Organization for Migration has distributed the items to people displaced by the storm. The UN World Food Program has reached twelve thousand seven hundred people in Haiti with food aid.
In The Bahamas, support is going to the national Red Cross to help provide shelter and water, sanitation and hygiene services. In Cuba, funds are being directed to Catholic Relief Services to ensure communities affected by the storm receive assistance without interference from the government.
The United States says it will continue to support Jamaica, Haiti, The Bahamas and Cuba as they work to recover from the damage left by Hurricane Melissa.
